Book handling mechanism



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BOOK HANDLING MECHANISM Filed Feb. 4. 1960 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 BY I l May 16, 1961 H. R. BILLETER 2,984,330*

BOOK HANDLING MECHANISM Filed Feb. 4, 1960 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR.

MW ym Patented May 16, 196i iice BUK HANDLING MECHANISM Henry Robert Blleter, Deerfield, Ill., assignor to R. R.

Donnelley & Sons Company, a corporation of Delaware Fiied Feb. 4, 1960, Ser. No. 6,790

6 Claims. (Cl. 1955-20) This invention relates to an apparatus for handling unbound books, and more particularly to an infeed mechanism for conveying unbound books onto the conveyor of a book binding machine. The term unbound book as used herein may be defined as a book the pages of which are neatly assembled with the edges of the pages aligned but not secured together, preparatory to the application of a cover.

It is a general object of the invention to provide a new and improved apparatus of the type described.

The invention is illustrated and described herein in connection with a conventional book binding machine including an endless conveyor arranged to travel in an endless horizontal path, such as an oval path, and including an endless series of book clamps arranged to pass a receiving station at which unbound books are delivered to the clamps to be carried to suitable stations for the application of a binder or cover which is suitably secured, as by glue, to the back edges of the book pages. The clamps referred to each comprise a pair of upright parallel plates, one secured to the conveyor to travel therewith and the other laterally movable on the conveyor relative to the first between a relatively widely spaced position for receiving a book and a relatively closely spaced position for holding a book. Associated with each of the clamps, and immediately therebehind relative to the direction of conveyor travel, there is a transversely extending pusher bar for engaging the trailing edge of the book to push the book on edge along a supporting plate therebeneath.

In the past, it has been customary to deliver unbound books to the receiving station of such a book binder conveyor by means of an infeed conveyor mechanism including an upwardly inclined plate disposed beneath and extending upwardly toward the book binder conveyor and terminating immediately adjacent the conveyor plate at the receiving station. An endless chain means associated with the infeed plate includes transverse pusher rods for pushing unbound books on edge up the infeed plate. In some cases, it has been customary to provide a roller at the juncture of the infeed plate and the book binder plate for facilitating movement of the book on edge from the inclined plate to the horizontal plate.

In installations of the type described diculty has been encountered in the transfer of the unbound books from the inclined infeed plate to the horizontal conveyor plate. More particularly, it is desirable to advance the books as rapidly as possible through the infeed conveyor and the book binder conveyor in order to provide a maximum production rate. But, as the .unbound books are pushed rapidly up the inclined infeed plate by the infeed conveyor mechanism they maintain the inclined position until they reach an unbalanced condition hanging partly over the horizontal conveyor plate, whereupon the front of the book drops rapidly to a horizontal position on the horizontal plate. The bumping of the rapidly moving unbound book as it drops onto the horizontal conveyor plate may jar the loose pages in the book out of alignment before the book is gripped by the clamps of the horizontal conveyor. More speciically, some pages or groups of pages in the book tend to slide ahead of the balance of the pages so that the leading and trailing edges of the assembled book are misaligned. In the past, this tendency of the unbound books to become misaligned during transfer from the infeed conveyor to the book binder conveyor has been controlled primarily by reducing the rate of travel of the books sufficiently that relative movement between the pages does not occur when a book drops onto the horizontal plate.

According to the present invention, the upper end of the inclined infeed plate is spaced horizontally and slightly below the adjacent end of the horizontal conveyor plate, and a series of book supporting cam rollers is provided between the ends of the two plates. The rollers are shaped and rotated so that each book in passing from the inclined infeed plate to' the horizontal conveyor plate is stably supported at all times at a plurality of positions along its length while at the same time the leading end of the book is progressively lowered relative to the trailing end and the trailing end s progressively raised relative to the leading end to gradually tilt the book from the inclined position to the horizontal position. The book is supported at all times during the transition from the inclined position to the horizontal position and is not permitted to tilt freely or drop onto the horizontal plate with an impact which tends to misalign the pages of the book.

In a preferred embodiment, succeeding rollers in the series, proceeding from the inclined infeed plate to the middle of the series, have progressively greater cam throws, and proceeding from the middle of the series to the horizontal conveyor plate, succeeding rollers have progressively lesser cam throws, and the low portions of successive rollers in the series lag the low portions of the preceding rollers angularly in rotation. The rollers are rotated in unison and in timed relationship to the movement of the pusher means which advance the books on the infeed conveyor and the book binder conveyor so that each roll completes one revolution from the time the leading `edge of one book passes to the time the leadingedge of a succeeding book passes. This provides for a gradual lowering of the front end of each book relative to the trailing end and the gradual elevation of the trailing end relative to the leading end.

The invention is illustrated in a preferred embodiment in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevational View, partly in section, at about the line l-l of Fig. 2;

Fig. 2 is a plan view taken at about the line 2 2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken at about the line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view taken at about the line 4 4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken at about theline 5-5 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary sectional View taken at about the linee- 6 of Fig. 2;

Figs. 7, 8 and 9, are fragmentary diagrammatic views illustrating the progress of a book over the book supporting rollers and the rotation of the rollers as the book `progresses thereover;

Fig. l0 is an end elevational View of `one of the book supporting rollers, illustrating the manner in which the roller is formed; and

Fig. 11 is a chart indicating themanner in which the book supporting rollers of the present invention may be formed.

Referring to the drawings in more detail, Figs. 1 and 2 include fragmentary portions of a book binding machine in which the invention is utilized, but the book binding machine is largely conventional and only portions thereof sufficient to enable an understanding of the present invention have been illustrated. Such machine includes an endless conveyor, generally designated 10, arranged to travel in an endless horizontal path, such as an oval path (not shown), and including a plurality of links or sections as at 11 each having a book clamping and pushing device associated therewith for gripping and pushing an unbound book resting on its back edge to suitable stations for binding and casing the unbound book. Each of the clamping and pushing devices comprises a pair of upright parallel spaced plates, one as at 12 fixed ou the conveyor for movement therewith and another as at 13 mounted to slide laterally relative to the plate 12 as by means of pins 14. Suitable means (not shown) such as can means is provided for separating the plates 12 and 13 rather widely in the vicinity of an infeed, or receiving station as at the positions of the two leftmost clamping devices illustrated in Fig. 1. The relatively wide spacing of the clamping plates 12 and 13 permits the insertion of unbound books upwardly between the clamping plates as illustrated at B1. After the books have been inserted between the clamping plates, the cam means causes movement of the plate 13 toward the plate 12 to securely clamp the unbound book by the time it reaches the position illustrated at B3, at the right of Fig. 1.

Directly beneath the path of the endless conveyor including the clamping plates 12 and 13 a horizontally disposed plate 15 is positioned to support the books B on edge as they are pushed along the plate by means of transversely extending pusher rods or pins 17, one associated with each of the clamping plates 12. The horizontal plate 15 associated with the book binder conveyor is in turn supported on a skeleton bottom plate as at 19 which in turn is suitably supported on a pair of side plates as at 20 and 21. Attached to the upper surface of the plate 15 are a pair of laterally spaced guide members 22 and 23 which are relatively adjustable and which function to retain the bottom edge of the unbound book within the area of the spaced clamping plates 12 and 13.

The individual unbound books as at B are previously assembled and suitably placed on an infeed conveyor which includes an infeed plate 3i) (Figs. 1 to 4) inclined upwardly toward the receiving end of the horizontal plate 15 of the book binder conveyor. The inclined infeed plate terminates as at a at a position spaced horizontally and somewhat below the adjacent end 15a of the horizontal plate 15. At opposite sides of the inclined infeed plate 30 are upright guide structures 31 and 32 (Fig. 3), including guideways 33 and 34, respectively, for spaced parallel endless chains 35. Spaced along chains are transversely extending pusher rods 37 which are engageable with the trailing edges of successive unbound books, resting on edge, to push the books up the inclined infeed plate 30 to about the position of the book B2 in Fig. 1, where the pushers 17 of the book binder conveyor assume the task of advancing the books. The endless chains 35 pass upwardly along an inclined path provided by the guideways 33 and 34, and then along short horizontal paths (Fig. 1) provided by continuations of the Iways 33 and 34, then around sprockets 40, then yaround sprockets 41 and from there around other suitable sprockets including drive sprockets (not shown) and nally back into the guideways 33 and 34.

In order to guide the unbound books up the inclined plate 30, the upright guide structure 32 for the rear chain 35 includes a suitably -attached upright guide plate as at 43. At the front, the books are guided by a gulde structure 44 suitably slotted as at 45 to permit the passage of pusher rods 37 and supported by transversely adjustable support rods as at 46. The rods 46 are attached to the guide structure 44 4and project laterally through the upright guide structure 31 and at the outboard ends are connected by la bracket 47 so that the rods 46 may be adjusted uniformly to position the guide 44 properly relative to the guide 43 as determined by the thickness of the particular books which are being handled at the time.

The inclined infeed plate 30 and the associated guide structure is suitably attached to the side plat 2i! and 21 and the entire structure is mounted to pivot about an axis (not shown) located remotely to the left of Figs. l and 2 to lower the side plates and the structure supported -thereon relative to the book binder conveyor 1t) in the event of a jam in the vicinity of the juncture between the infeed conveyor andthe book binder conveyor. To this end, a suitably supported toggle mechanism (only partly shown) includes `a link as at 51) (Fig. l) pivoted as at 51 on a rod extending between the two side plates 20 land 21. The toggle is normally biased to position the link 50 as illustrated to maintain the side plates and the structure supported thereon in the position illustrated but may be broken by means of a handle 52 (Fig. 2) for turning the link 50 in a counterclockwise direction to break the toggle and lower the side plates 21) and 21.

According to the present invention, the upper end of the inclined infeed plate is spaced horizontally from the adjacent end of the horizontal plate 15, and below the plate 15, and a series of cam shaped book supporting rollers is provided between the `adjacent plate ends to gradually tilt the book from the inclined position to the horizontal position While maintaining a support under the book at a plurality of points lengthwise of the book. Thus the transition from the inclined position to the horizontal position is effected smoothly without jarring pages or groups of pages out of alignment. As illustrated, the series includes six rollers, #1 to #6, proceeding from the infeed plate to the horizontal conveyor plate 15, mounted respectively on shafts 1a-6a (Figs. l, 2, 5 and 6) for rotation therewith. At opposite ends, the shafts 1a-6a are mounted in suitable bearings as at 1b-6b in the side plates 20 and 21. In order to provide for rotation of the rollers #1-#6 in unison, the rear ends of the roller shafts are provided respectively with circular crank plates 1c-6c eccentrically mounted on the shafts and fixed thereto to revolve therewith. The crank plates are provided respectively with eccentrically mounted crank pins 1d-6d each rotatably mounted as by means of bearings 1e-6e in a drive plate 60 of generally triangular shape. Thus, if the drive plate 60 is given a circular motion in a clockwise direction as viewed in Figs. 1 and 6, the crank pins 1d-6d are revolved about the axes 1a-6a and the rollers #1 -#6 are rotated in a clockwise direction in unison.

In order to drive the plate 61), at the lower end of its triangular conguration, as viewed in Figs. l and 6, the plate has a crank pin 61 rotatably mounted thereon as in a bearing 62 and also mounted in a circular crank plate 63 xed on the end of a drive shaft 64 to rotate therewith. The drive shaft 64 has opposite ends mounted in bearings as at 65 in the plates 20 and 21. As seen best in Figs. 1 and 5, the sprockets 41, around which the infeed conveyor chains 35 pass, are mounted on the shaft 64 so that the shaft is driven in timed relationship to the movement of the pushers 37 on the infeed conveyor.

At this point, it may also be noted that the sprockets 40 about which the infeed conveyor chains 35 pass are rotatably mounted on the roller shaft 3a as by means of bearings 40a.

The series of book supporting cam rollers for effectin transition of the books from the inclined infeed plate 3l) to the horizontal plate 15 includes two groups, one group including the rolls #1, #2 and #3 which are assenso fnounted on `axes lying in `a plane parallel to the plane of the inclined infeed plate 30, and a second `group inicluding the rolls #4, and #6 mounted on axes lying in a plane parallel to the plane of the horizontal conveyor plate 15. As best illustrated in Figs. 7, 8 and 9, each of the six cam rollers has an irregular, non-circular peripheral contour including a high concentric portion lf-f, and a low portion, lg-g, of lesser radius and non- `concentric about the axis of rotation. The high conthe rollers are properly positioned angularly, thereby to deliver a book to the horizontal plate in a substantially horizontal position.

Proceeding from the inclined infeecl plate 30 toward the `middle of the series of rollers, the high concentric portions 1f, 2f and 3f are of consecutively shorter arcuate lengths and the `low non-concentric portions 1g, 2g and `3g are of consecutively greater length and consecutively shorter radii so that the rollers have progressively greater throws. Conversely, proceeding from the middle of the series toward the horizontal conveyor plate the high concentric portions 4f, 5f and f of the rollers #4, #5 and #6 have consecutively greater arcuate lengths and the low portions have consecutively shorter lengths and consecutively greater radii so that the rollers have progressively lesser throws. Throughout the series, proceeding from the inclined infeedplate 36 to the horizontal conveyor plate 15, the low portions of succeeding rollers lag the low portions of preceding rollers angularly in rotation. While the succeeding rollers in the second group are generally similar, respectively, to the corresponding rollers in the first group in inverse order, there may be differences between the two rollers of each pair, as will appear from a consideration ofFigs. 10 and 1l.

In operation, the rollers #l to #6 are rotated in unison in a clockwise direction as viewed in Figs. 7, 8 and 9 and in timed relationship to the movement of the pushers 37 of the infeed conveyor and the pushers 17 of the book binder conveyor. In the preferred embodiment illustrated, each roll is rotated one revolution from the time the leadingedgeof one book passes thereover to the time the leading ledge of the succeeding bookpasses thereover. As illustrated in the diagrammatic views of Figs. 7, 8 and 9, each book is supported during passage over the rolls at a plurality of points in its length while the front end is progressively lowered relative to the trailing end and the trailing end is progressively elevated relative to the leading end. Generally, the front end of each book rst engages the high concentric portions of the rolls #1, #2 and #3 and immediately thereafter the lower portions of these rolls become effective to begin lowering the front end of the book. After this, the front end of the book engages low portions of the rolls #4, #5 and #6 after which even lower portions of these rolls engage the book to lower the front end relative to the trailing end while at the same time the high portions of the rolls #1, #2 and #3 engage the trailing portions of the book to begin elevating the trailing portions of the book relative to the leading end. Finally, the high portions of the rolls #4, #5 and #6 engage the trailing portions of the book to elevate the trailing end to a substantially horizontal position in line with the horizontal conveyor plate 15.

lt is apparent from the foregoing description of the action of the series of rollers that the rotation of the rollers as the book moves forward causes a progressive shift in the height of the supporting surfaces above their axes. This shift is such that the book is rst stably supported on at least two rollers in a plane which is a projection of the surface of the :inclined plate, and is gradually tilted by the progressive shift in the height of the supporting surface until it is stably supported on at least two rollers in a plane which is a projection of the surface of the horizontal plate. The result is that the book is always stably supported in its movement from the inclined plate to the horizontal plate, and in effect progresses around a `curved surface as it moves over the rollers.

The rolls are preferably formed `as illustrated in Fig. 1G and in the chart vof Fig. 11. To simplify the description, only one roll is illustrated in Fig. 10, this being roll #3. For purposes of forming the low non-concentric portion of the roll, a radius as at 70 through the center of a key slot 71 is used as a reference on a standard roll of 2 diameter throughout. Proceeding from the radius 70 in a counterclockwise direction and referring to the chart in Fig. 11, at from the radius 70 (column 1 of the chart, line 2) as at 72, a tangent is milled on the standard roll at a depth of .168 (column 4 of `the chart, line 2). Thus, at this point the diameter of the 2" roll is reduced by .168. Next, at 120 from the radius 70, as at 73 (column 1 of the chart, line 3), a tangent is milled at ardepth of .278" (column 4 of the chart, `line 3). Following this, at the angularly spaced positions indicated in column 1 of the chart the tangents are milled at the depths indicated in column 4 of the chart. When this milling is complete, the corners thus formed are tiled down to blend into a smooth curve to produce the surface illustrated on the roll in Figs. 7, 8 and 9. The other five rolls are milled in similar fashion as indicated in the remainingcolumns of the chart, and filed in similar fashion to provide smooth curved surfaces on the rolls.

The foregoing detailed description is given for clearness of understanding only and no unnecessary limitations are to be understood therefrom, as some modifications will be obvious fto those skilled in the art.

I claim:

l. Book handling mechanism comprising: a generally horizontal book support; a book support inclined upwardly toward the horizontal support; a series of book supporting rollers between the upper end of the inclined support and theadjacent end of the horizontal support rotatably mounted and having irregular peripheral contours providing a plurality of spaced arcuate surfaces on which a book is supported in passage from the inclined support onto the horizontal support; means for pushing books oneat `a time up the inclined support, over the rollers and onto the `horizontal support; andmeans for rotating the rollers in timed relationship to the movement of the pushing means to progressively vary the height of the book supporting surfaces so that a book is stably supported on a plurality of said surfaces at all times in passage from the inclined support onto the horizontal support.

2. Book handling mechanism comprising: a generally horizontal book support; a book support inclined upwardly toward the horizontal support; a series of book supporting rollers between the upper end of the inclined support and the adjacent end of the horizontal support rotatably mounted and having irregular peripheral contours providing a plurality of spaced arcuate surfaces on which a book is supported in passage from the inclined support onto the horizontal support; means for pushing books one at a time up the inclined support, over the rollers and onto the horizontal support; .and means for rotating the rollers in timed relationship to the movement of the pushing means, rotation of said rollers causing a progressive shift in the height of the supporting surfaces above their axes such that the book is stably supported on at least two rollers in a plane which is a projection of the surface of the inclined plate, and is gradually tilted by said progressive shift until it is stably supported on at 7 least two rollers in a plane which is a projection of the surface of the horizontal plate.

3. In combination with a book binder conveyor including a horizontal plate for supporting unbound books on edge and movable conveyor pusher means engageable with books on edge on the plate for pushing the books along the. plate, an infeed mechanism comprising: an infeed plate inclined upwardly toward the conveyor plate in the direction of book travel for supporting unbound books on edge, said infeed plate terminating at a position spaced horizontally from and below the adjacent end of the conveyor plate; a series of book supporting cam rollers between the adjacent ends of the horizontal plate and the inclined plate, said rollers being rotatable to gradually tilt a book from -inclined position to horizontal position as it travels over the rollers from the inclined plate to the horizontal plate; infeed pusher means engageable with books on edge on the infeed plate and movable in timed relationship with the movement of the conveyor pusher means to push the books up the infeed plate and over the rollers to a position to be engaged by the conveyor pusher means; and means for rotating the rollers in unison and in timed relation to the movement of the pusher means.

4. Book handling mechanism comprising: a generally horizontal plate for supporting unbound books on edge; an infeed plate inclined upwardly toward the horizontal plate in the direction of book travel for supporting unbound books on edge; a series of book supporting cam rollers between the adjacent ends of the inclined plate and the horizontal plate, succeeding rollers in the series, proceeding from the inclined plate to the middle of the series, having predetermined progressively greater throws, and proceeding from the middle of the series to the horizontal plate, having predetermined progressively lesser throws; means for pushing books on edge one at a time up the inclined plate, over the rollers and onto the horizontal plate; and means for rotating the rollers in timed relationship to the movement of |the pushing means, with the low portions of succeeding rollers in the series, proceeding from the inclined plate to the horizontal plate, angularly lagging the low portions of the preceding rollers, to progressively lower the leading end of a book relative to its trailing end and progressively raise the trailing end of the book relative to its leading end, whereby the book is gradually tilted from an inclined position to a horizontal position as it passes over the rollers from the inclined plate onto the horizontal plate.

5. The mechanism of claim 4, in which the means for rotating the rollers comprises a drive shaft rotatable in timed relationship to the movement of the pushing means, an eccentric crank pin on the drive shaft, an eccentric crank pin on each of the cam shaped rollers, and a drive plate pivotally mounted on the drive shaft crank pin and on the roller crank pins for transmitting the motion of the drive shaft to the rollers.

6. Book handling mechanism comprising: a horizontal plate for supporting unbound books on edge; an infeed plate inclined upwardly toward the horizontal plate for supporting unbound books on edge; a series of book supporting cam rollers between the adjacent ends of the infeed plate and the horizontal plate, said series including a rst group of cam rollers adjacent the infeed plate rotatable on axes lying in a plane parallel to the plane of the infeed plate and a second group of rollers adjacent the horizontal plate rotatable on axes lying in a plane parallel to the plane of the horizontal plate, each of said rollers having a non-circular peripheral contour including a high concentric portion and a low non-concentric portion, the high concentric portions of the rollers in the rst group being of a radius to lie in the plane of the infeed plate for receiving books therefrom and the high concentric portions of the rollers in the second group being of a radius to lie in the plane of the horizontal plate for delivering books thereto, the high concentric portions of succeeding rollers in the first group being of consecutively shorter arcuate lengths and the low portions being of consecutively greater arcuate lengths and consecutively shorter radii, succeeding rollers of the second group being generally similar respectively to the rollers of the first group in inverse order, the low portions of successive rollers in the series lagging the low portions of preceding rollers angularly in rotation; means for pushing books one at a time up the inclined plate, over the rollers and onto the horizontal plate; and means for rotating the rollers in timed relationship to the movement of the pushing means so that the leading portion of each book is rst supported by high portions of the rollers in the rst group and the trailing portion of each book is last supported by high portions of they rollers in the second group, whereby each book is gradually tilted from inclined position to horizontal position.

Allison Mar. 25, 1913 Cutler Oct. 19, 1926 

